This invention relates to performance improvements which may be achieved in many types of dispersive delay lines. Since the improvements were initially designed for a special type crimped coax line, this type line will be discussed in detail so as to enable understanding of the benefits achieved. However, it will be understood that the subject techniques are applicable to other delay lines and especially to those in which there are considerable transmission losses.
Dispersive delay lines have been utilized in the past for many purposes such as compression filters which compress signals by making the delay of the signal applied to the line proportional to frequency or alternatively, as a chirp local oscillator which generates an output signal whose frequency rapidly sweeps through a given band. One of the most popular uses for the dispersive delay line is in compressive receivers, in which the presence and frequency of an incoming signal is ascertained by heterodyning the incoming signal with a fast-sweeping variable frequency oscillator signal. The dispersive delay line compresses the resulting signal and its output when sampled at a particular time shows the existence of a signal at a predetermined frequency.
For purposes of this invention a dispersive delay line is a network arranged so that signals at the low end of a given band are delayed .tau..sub.1 seconds, and the signals at the high end of the band are delayed .tau..sub.2 seconds, with a linear relationship in between: ##EQU1## The result is that for a frequency sweep matched to the frequency is delay characteristic of the line, the low frequency part of the signal emerges from the network simultaneously with the high frequency part, and indeed all frequency components of a signal emerge simultaneously.
In the past, there have been a number of different dispersive delay line techniques. One delay line is called a "meander line" and was developed and used by the Stanford Research Institute in their pioneering microscan receiver developements for the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Army. The meander line was a delay line consisting of bridged T microwave sections which were planar in structure. While excellent early results were obtained with the meander line, which included a 600 MHz bandwidth and a 200 nanosecond differential delay, this particular type of line is difficult to fabricate and expensive to manufacture.
More recently, surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices have been utilized in pulse-compression. In 1976, R. D. Weglein et al, of Hughes, reported a 500 MHz bandwidth surface wave pulse compressive filter operating about a center frequency of 1.3 GHz. Mellon and Bell of Texas Instruments described the development of a UHF surface wave pulse compressor, which device was designed to operate between 1.0 and 1.5 GHz. Also in the same year, Williamson et al presented a paper on "L-Band Reflective Array Compressor with a Compression Ratio of 5120." Weglein's line used electron beam fabrication as did that of Mellon and Bell. Williamson's line was a reflective array compressor utilizing ion beam etching for pattern generation.
In most instances, the reflective array compressor lines are fabricated on lithium niobate and BGO. Here, the bandwidth is resolution limited at about 500 MHz.
Limits of high frequency operation of SAW devices, whether they use interdigitated finger patterns, reflective grooves, or combinations of these, depends upon the ability to accurately produce the pattern to be manufactured on the required substrate. At the present time, SAW State-of-the-Art technology appears to be progressing towards a practical 1 GHz bandwidth filter.
One family of dispersive delay lines not heretofore mentioned, are the magnetostatic wave delay lines. The principle of operation of these delay lines depends on continuous, inherent dispersive properties of the delay medium that potentially eliminates the need for high resolution transducer patterns. At the same time, the propagation velocity is low enough to design small devices. Both magnetostatic surface wave results and bulk wave results show promise of very high frequency operation from several GHz to tens of GHz. However, these particular lines have excessive insertion loss and an excessive latency time for purposes of high performance pulse compression receivers.
As compared to the State-of-the-Art compressive filters, a compressive filter can by the present teaching be fabricated from a simple conventional "semi-rigid" 50 ohm coaxial cable, in which the cable is provided with discontinuities at predetermined spaced intervals, which discontinuities reflect energy of a pedetermined frequency back through the line by virtue of the spacing between the discontinuities. In one embodiment this is accomplished by a technique in which the outer conductor is crimped inwardly at selected points to provide a single port device which has a wider bandwidth than the SAW devices with lower insertion loss. When the axial crimp length is small compared to the wavelength, the crimped portion behaves as a simple capacitive shunt to reflect incoming energy back down the line, selectively by frequency as a function of crimp spacings. For purposes of this invention "crimping" refers to the compressing or pinching of the outer conductor of the coaxial line towards the inner conductor. In conventional "semi-rigid" coaxial lines the outer conductor is copper or steel.
At the present time, with the crimp coax technique, it is possible to obtain a demonstrable pulse compression bandwidth of up to 3.6 GHz and low insertion loss in a single line. Other features are a single port, 50 ohm impedance and insensivity to temperature changes, and further automatic temperature compensation by forming the linear-FM swept local oscillator by impulsing a crimped line of similar design. The crimping is accomplished by a crimping tool which in one embodiment has four teeth which squeeze into the line to provide the capacitative shunt. Alternatively, the line may be compressed at the required point by parallel spaced apart blades in a scissors-like pinch action, or by a pipe-cutting type tool which crimps the line symmetrically into an annular groove.
The crimped coax dispersive delay line is a single port device which may be easily and inexpensively mass produced with a pecisely controlled characteristic impedance of 50 ohms thus requiring no matching networks, and with a low temperature coefficient of delay which eliminates the need for temperature control. Independent crimping for amplitude weighting and linear time delay corrections is accomplished within the line and the compact structure needs no shielding or special packaging.
It should be noted that the use of a coaxial cable as a delay line is not without precedent. The simple, reliable wideband "uncrimped" coaxial cable delay line has been in use for over twenty years in many thousands of repeater jammers as a microwave memory element. No other device (bulk acoustic, SAW or meander line) has proven as economical in this application when large bandwidth and low loss are required.
As is well known, coaxial cable has a certain amount of transmission loss associated with it, which losses acccumulate when long lines are used.
Although the crimped coax configuration described functions completely satisfactorily for most applications it is possible to improve its performance.
In general, it is possible to increase the bandwidth of a dispersive delay line by lowering transmission loss through the use of two pulse compression lines or a bifurcated line. Propagation loss is, in effect, eliminated by bifurcating the line at the centrally located midpoint and feeding the two halves simultaneously, one with an upswept signal and the other with a downswept signal. Use of a composite non-dispersive/dispersive delay line in another configuration allows for non-simultaneous input/output operation and removes input/output leakage as a limitation to dynamic range. This is called the "high dynamic range" embodiment. It should be noted that certain dispersive delay lines inherently have non-dispersive characteristics, but this factor has not heretofore been used in a system to increase the dynamic range of the line. Moreover, it will be appreciated that delay lines may be used in one or both of two modes: (1) as a compressive filter for use with compessive receivers and (2) as a chirp local oscillator which, when fed with a short impulse signal effectively having all frequency components, produces sequentially signals differing in frequency so as to provide a sweep or chip local oscillator signal at its output.
It will be appreciated that the above improvements have been described in terms of a dispersive delay line in which the delay is a linear function of frequency. The crimped coaxial line may also be configured to function as a bandpass filter. In one embodiment, with equally spaced crimps, the filter has a sin x/x characteristic. Alternatively, with appropriate amplitude and phase weighting, the line can be tailored to a desired bandpass characteristic involving a predetermined sidelobe structure. It will be appreciated that the amplitude weighting is a function of the depth of the crimp, and the phase is a function of crimp positioning. It should be noted that bandpass filters have been made in the past from waveguides provided with spaced stubs. This is however an expensive process and the crimped coaxial line offers significant cost advantages as well as certain performance advantages. Also due to the flexibility of the crimped coaxial line, packaging dimensions can be minimized with the coiling of the lines.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide increased bandwidth for either dispersive delay lines or bandpass filters through the use of either two delay lines, a bifurcated line having a single port, or a fraction of a bifurcated line with heterodyning circuitry.
It is also an object to provide a high dynamic range delay line configuration.